Already There

Lectio: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 

Meditatio: I think we are all familiar with this chapter of the Bible, the love chapter. However, I don't think I have ever really ever given much thought verse 12. This week I have had a couple of dreams where I am speaking to someone from my past; and in in the past when I have had these dreams I usually wake up feeling pretty good about what has happened, however, this weekend, the dreams have led me to question what is going on? Why did certain things play out the way they did? 

I think back the fact that I lost a couple of friends due to my own mental disorder. And when I question what happened and why I feel the way I do, I am also questioning how I can fix things. For me V. 12 speaks of the fact that I don't see the "big picture." Today, I was driving to work when on my iPod the song Already There by Casting Crowns came on. The chorus says:

When I'm lost in the mystery, to You my future is a memory. 'Cause You're already there; You're already there. Standing at the end of my life, waiting on the other side, and You're already there, You're already there...One day I'll stand before You, And look back on the life I've lived, I can't wait to enjoy the view, And see how all the pieces fit.

As Paul says we know in part now, but someday we'll know fully what is happening in our lives and how the pieces shall surely fit; until then we shall only know in part what each moment, each dream, each thought truly means.

Oratio: Father, you are already at the end of each person's life; you see what happens in the dash. Help us maintain strength to continue to live our lives for you even when we can't see how all the pieces fit for your glory. 

Contemplatio: On tombstones there is a dash between the date of birth and the date of death, that little space is meant to sum up your life, what will people say about your dash? Will you spend a life in love? Do you wish that God would allow you to see the bigger picture or are you happy seeing only the small parts?